Order of Dolls
Order of Dolls is a fan set designed by Rhea Shelley, the man behind Button Men: The Book. It was released in October 2000 by Hawk's Ness Press. Their storyline and art, a "Tank Girl" esque pop art style, was created by Cinco Barnes of Spacetime Studios. The set introduces Assassin Dice. When advertising the book, this set was used as a 'hook,' as it was an 'exclusive set' that came with the book. Physical buttons of this set have not been confirmed nor mentioned by owners of the book. It may have been expected for you to cut the pictures out of the book yourself. As stated in Button Men: The Book, "The Order of Dolls trains young lingerie models in the ways of assassination and world terror. Revenge, humiliation and liquidation are the Dolls' stock in trade-- available to the highest bidder. Founded in the US by a frustrated music industry executive, the Dols are now employed across the globe." Cinco Barnes reflects upon his part of the set: Rhea Shelley and I were working at Origin Systems for Electronic Arts at the time. We had different game projects at EA but we worked together in extra-curricular activities - namely a band that had regular shows at an old Austin club called the "Black Cat Lounge." I remember Rhea telling me about the Button Men property and the opportunity to build some characters. He handled all of the game systems stuff and asked me to do the visual development and the fiction for a special set. The fiction had to fit a template and the character imagery had some basic requirements - but the creative-side was pretty wide open. Rhea and I brainstormed the characters' origin / backstory for a little while and then I got started drawing and writing pretty much immediately thereafter. I did a draft of the fiction first and showed it to Rhea for feedback and editing. When he was happy I sketched the characters and went through the same process with him 'til we were both happy. Rhea was very supportive of my initial idea to do this series on "mutant models," who for various financial reasons donate their bodies to the government and wind up with awesome super-powers. I do not recall how the actual game pieces for 'Dolls' wound up in players' hands. The idea of cutting out and crafting your own button(s) rings a bell but I cannot say for certain. I was not involved in the playtesting but I do recall Rhea running sessions with a wide array of professionals at our company. While all of the Button Men stuff was going on I was working with another developer on a 3D space action game in hopes of getting a job on the next 'Wing Commander' title. Plus, due to lack of attention span I have never been much of a paper gamer ;-) Text and images courtesy of Elliot C. "Eeyore" Evans.Category:All Sets Category:Fan Sets Category:Art:Cinco Barnes Category:Sets with Nontraditional Dice Category:Sets with d16s Category:Sets with d30s Category:Sets with Assassin Dice Category:Sets with Twin Dice Category:Sets with X-Swing Dice Category:Sets with V-Swing Dice Category:Sets with Z-Swing Dice Category:Hard-To-Find Sets